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58. True Fasting

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew
my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2Yet
they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did
righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the
ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

3Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?
wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?
Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
4Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of
wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice
to be heard on high.5Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a
man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and
to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast,
and an acceptable day to the Lord?6Is not this the fast that I
have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and
to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?7Is
it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that
are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him;
and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall
spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory
of the Lord shall be thy rereward.
9Then shalt thou call, and the Lord
shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou
take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger,
and speaking vanity;10And if thou draw out thy soul to the
hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in
obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:11And the Lord
shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat
thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of
water, whose waters fail not.12And they that shall be of thee
shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many
generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The
restorer of paths to dwell in.

13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy
pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the
Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding
thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14Then shalt
thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high
places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Isa 58:1-14. Reproof of the
Jews for Their Dependence on Mere Outward Forms of Worship.

1. aloud—Hebrew, "with the
throat," that is, with full voice, not merely from the lips (1Sa 1:13). Speak loud enough to arrest
attention.

my people—the Jews in Isaiah's time,
and again in the time of our Lord, more zealous for externals than for
inward holiness. Rosenmuller thinks the
reference to be to the Jews in the captivity practising their rites to
gain God's favor and a release; and that hence, sacrifices are
not mentioned, but only fasting and Sabbath observance,
which they could keep though far away from the temple in Jerusalem. The
same also applies to their present dispersion, in which they cannot
offer sacrifices, but can only show their zeal in
fastings, &c. Compare as to our Lord's time, Mt 6:16, 23;
Lu 18:12.

2. Put the stop at "ways"; and connect "as a
nation that," &c. with what follows; "As a nation that did
righteousness," thus answers to, "they ask of Me just judgments"
(that is, as a matter of justice due to them, salvation to
themselves, and destruction to their enemies); and "forsook not the
ordinance of their God," answers to "they desire the drawing near of
God" (that God would draw near to exercise those "just
judgments" in behalf of them, and against their enemies) [Maurer]. So Jerome,
"In the confidence, as it were, of a good conscience, they demand a
just judgment, in the language of the saints: Judge me, O Lord, for I
have walked in mine integrity." So in Mal 2:17, they affect to be scandalized at the
impunity of the wicked, and impugn God's justice [Horsley]. Thus, "seek Me daily, and desire
(English Version not so well, 'delight') to know My ways,"
refers to their requiring to know why God delayed so long in helping
them. English Version gives a good, though different sense;
namely, dispelling the delusion that God would be satisfied with
outward observances, while the spirit of the law, was violated
and the heart unchanged (Isa 58:3-14; Eze 33:31, 32; compare Joh 18:28), scrupulosity side by side with murder.
The prophets were the commentators on the law, as their Magna
Charta, in its inward spirit and not the mere letter.

3. Wherefore—the words of the Jews: "Why
is it that, when we fast, Thou dost not notice it" (by delivering us)?
They think to lay God under obligation to their fasting (Ps
73:13; Mal 3:14).

4. ye shall not fast—rather, "ye do not
fast at this time, so as to make your voice to be heard on high," that
is, in heaven; your aim in fasting is strife, not to gain the ear of
God [Maurer] (1Ki 21:9, 12,
13). In English
Version the sense is, If you wish acceptance with God, ye must not
fast as ye now do, to make your voice heard high in strife.

5. for a man to afflict his soul—The
pain felt by abstinence is not the end to be sought, as
if it were meritorious; it is of value only in so far as it leads us to
amend our ways (Isa 58:6, 7).

foundations of many generations—that
is, the buildings which had lain in ruins, even to their
foundations, for many ages; called in the parallel passage
(Isa
61:4), "the former
desolations"; and in the preceding clause here, "the old waste
places." The literal and spiritual restoration of Israel is meant,
which shall produce like blessed results on the Gentile world (Am
9:11, 12; Ac 15:16, 17).

be called—appropriately: the name
truly designating what thou shalt do.

foot—the instrument of motion (compare
Pr 4:27); men are not to travel for
mere pleasure on the Sabbath (Ac 1:12). The Jews were forbidden to travel on
it farther than the tabernacle or temple. If thou keep thy foot from
going on thy own ways and "doing thy pleasure," &c. (Ex 20:10, 11).

my holy day—God claims it as
His day; to take it for our pleasure is to rob Him of His own.
This is the very way in which the Sabbath is mostly broken; it is made
a day of carnal pleasure instead of spiritual "delight."

holy of the Lord—not the predicate,
but the subject; "if thou call the holy (day) of Jehovah honorable"; if
thou treat it as a day to be honored.

him—or else, it, the
Sabbath.

not doing … own way—answering
to, "turn away thy foot from the Sabbath."

nor finding … pleasure—answering
to, "doing thy pleasure." "To keep the Sabbath in an idle manner is the
sabbath of oxen and asses; to pass it in a jovial manner is the sabbath
of the golden calf, when the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose
again to play; to keep it in surfeiting and wantonness is the sabbath
of Satan, the devil's holiday" [Bishop
Andrewes].

nor speaking … words—answering
to, "call Sabbath a delight … honorable." Man's
"own words" would "call" it a "weariness"; it is the spiritual
nature given from above which "calls it a delight" (Am 8:5; Mal
1:13).

14. delight … in … Lord—God
rewards in kind, as He punishes in kind. As we "delight" in keeping
God's "Sabbath," so God will give us "delight" in Himself (Ge
15:1; Job 22:21-26; Ps 37:4).

ride upon … high places—I will
make thee supreme lord of the land; the phrase is taken from a
conqueror riding in his chariot, and occupying the hills and fastnesses
of a country [Vitringa], (De
32:13; Mic 1:3; Hab 3:19).
Judea was a land of hills; the idea thus is, "I will restore
thee to thine own land" [Calvin]. The
parallel words, "heritage of Jacob," confirm this (Ge 27:28,
29; 28:13-15).

mouth of … Lord … spoken
it—a formula to assure men of the fulfilment of any solemn
promise which God has made (Isa 40:5).